52 Weeks of Yorkshire – Week 1

It is the first week of 2017, and so here is the first of my 52 images for the 52 weeks of this year!

Craven Court

This image of the Craven Court shopping centre in my home town of Skipton was taken this morning, at about 7:30 am. The sleepy Yorkshire town is known for its markets, and on a market day the town comes alive with people from all over the county. This shopping centre would normally be full of people visiting the many cafes and shops inside, yet only an hour before the shops will start to open, it is almost empty, and all that can be heard are the sounds of shopkeepers chatting and opening their shops. To me this picture describes what it is like to live in a place like Skipton, rather than simply visit it for the shops and cafes. It is a scene which none of the tourists visiting the market today will see.

The shot itself was fairly simple, using only a tripod to allow for a slightly longer exposure to capture the image in the dark. Once home there was very little work to do in Lightroom, as the shot in-camera was fairly close to how I had envisioned it. First I cropped it to fit a square format, then change the colour temperature slightly (3.2k) to give it a slightly ‘colder’ look. Then I reduced saturation slightly, to really accentuate the ‘flat’ look of the scene.

Overall, I am very happy with this as the first shot of my 52-week project, and I look forward to finishing exams next week when I get back to York so I can start work on the second!